FirstHoldCo’s Performance Rally: Interest Income up by +37.45% in Q1 2025
Key HIGHLIGHTS
FirstHoldco’s performance in Q1 2025 suggested a mixed performance. The interest income in Q1 2025 rose by +37.43% to N625.28bn from N454.98% in Q1 2024. This growth was driven by largely high yields in loans and advances to customer (N364.17bn) and investment securities (rose by +55.82% to N222.33bn). Similarly, interest expense rose by +14.87% in Q1 2025 to N260.09bn from N226.42bn in Q1 2024, with significant outflow to deposits from customer (N156.43bn). The group’s non-interest income (financial instrument at FVTPL) declined by -83.42% to N47.91bn in Q1 2025 from N288.94bn in Q1 2024. The pre- and post-tax profit declined in Q1 2025. The PBT fell by -21.82% to N186.48bn in Q1 2025 from N234.53% in Q1 2024. Consequently, the PAT declined by -19.59% to N167.39bn in Q1 2025 from N208.16bn recorded in Q1 2024.
The net fee and commission income rose by +18.83% in Q1 2025 to N64.11bn from N53.95 recorded in Q1 2024 with significant contribution from e-banking fees (N20.14bn). The +24.77% growth in deposit size to N19,883.72bn in Q1 2025 from N15,809.22bn in Q1 2024 led to +11.11% rise in total loans and advances from N11,884.95bn to N13,205.06bn in Q1 2025. Shareholders’ equity leveraged higher retained earnings to grow by +42.97% to N2,738.28bn in Q1 2025 from N1,915.29bn in Q1 2024 (see table 1 below).
Table 1:
RATIO
FirstHoldco’s net interest margin improved to +1.93% in Q1 2025 from +1.47% in Q1 2024. The return on equity and assets declined to +6.11% and +0.63% in Q1 2025 from +10.87% and +0.96% in Q1 2024 respectively. The cost-to-income ratio fell to +26.15% in Q1 2025 from +64.74% in Q1 2024 (see table 2 below).
Table 2:
VALUATION
The price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) rose to 6.95x in Q1 2025 from 6.17x in Q1 2024. Conversely, price-to-book value (P/B) declined to 0.43x in Q1 2025 from 0.78x in Q1 2024 (see Table 3 below).
Table 3:
Share Price MOVEMENT
FirstHoldco’s share price witnessed a mild level of volatility in Q1 2025. The share price began to rally in the week of January, rising to a 15-week high of N33.00k in February 7, 2025 but became volatile thereafter. By the last week in February, the share price began a gradual decline amid slight rebounds and eventually settled at N24.60k by April 17, 2025 with an average of N28.88k over Q1 2025 (see chart 1 below).
Chart 1:
Closing THOUGHTS
First Holdco’s performance in Q1 2025 revealed the bank’s strength in lending activities and improved quality of asset. However, the increase in operating expenses and decline in non-interest income impacted profitability in the period under review.
